Ninotchka 1939 - Garbo laughs!

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IMDB rating: 8,0

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi

"Ninotchka connects the careers of 1930s directing great Ernst Lubitsch and future directing great Billy Wilder, who was among a quartet of writers who did credited work on this film. The film evidences the strength of both, Lubitsch's lighter style works together with Wilder's more cutting dialogue. The production values and tech credits are first-rate, with the glossy look and classy feel that were the hallmarks of MGM in this era. Greta Garbo, with more than a little self-parody, proves herself adept at comedy, and Melvyn Douglas shows why he was one of the screen's most in-demand romantic leads of the 1930s. This is one of the rare opportunities to see Bela Lugosi in a likable, non-horrific role, though it was, regrettably, Lugosi's last supporting performance in a high-budget film. Douglas, on the other hand, would unexpectedly emerge in later decades as one of the screen's best and most versatile dramatic actors." - www.allmovie.com

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Grand Hotel 1932 - Garbo 'wants to be alone'

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IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Edmund Goulding
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt

"Based on Vicki Baum's novel, Grand Hotel is the prototype for the all-star ensemble film and an excellent example of the rich and glamorous escapist entertainment, often from MGM, that took on enhanced prominence during the Depression. Produced by Irving Thalberg using top-end ingredients and state-of-the-art technology, it is yet another example of MGM's dominance during the 1930s for this type of film. The plot exists merely as a device to get star faces on the screen, particularly that of Greta Garbo. Though only moderately respected by the critics, Grand Hotel has proven itself of enduring influence, both for Garbo's performance and for creating star-heavy blockbusters that peaked in the 1950s with Around the World in 80 Days. Grand Hotel won Best Picture at the 1932 Academy Awards." - www.allmovie.com

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Susan Lenox: Her fall and rise 1931 - Garbo rises above all else

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022453/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,5

Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan

"It was once theorized by critic Andrew Sarris that this 1931 Greta Garbo vehicle was subtitled 'Her Fall & Rise' rather than the expected 'Rise & Fall', because Hollywood - and by extension, the public - could not tolerate a failure. Whatever the case, modern audiences will latch onto Susan Lennox not because of its cumbersome title but because of its one-time-only pairing of Garbo and Clark Gable. It's a pairing that promises fireworks, especially as Gable is still young - and even mustache-less. Unfortunately, those firecrackers don't ever really materialize. There's certainly some chemistry between the two, but not enough, perhaps because Gable is not well cast. The Gable audiences know and remember would never have let his true love's tawdry background keep him from her. Gable doesn't seem comfortable in the role, and as a result he can't come up to Garbo's level, who is playing a part that fits her like a glove. Looking absolutely stunning in William H. Daniels' lovingly composed photography, Garbo sails through the part, turning in a glorious star diva performance that still finds the truth beneath the cinematic trappings and makes a ridiculous story compelling and thoroughly engaging. Lenox' screenplay is so much nonsense, but Garbo knows she can play that nonsense for all its worth, and she is a wonder to behold. She gets fine support from Jean Hersholt and Alan Hale, and even miscast, Gable is worth seeing; but Lenox is a Garbo vehicle, and she is at all times firmly in the driver's seat.
The film was adapted by four screenwriters from a novel by David Graham Phillips." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/susan-lenox-her-fall-and-rise-v48018/

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Mata Hari 1931 - One legend portrays another

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023196/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,8

Director: George Fitzmaurice
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley

"Mata Hari is the kind of experience that one can get only from motion pictures. Which isn't to say that it is a great film, mind you. The script is a lot of claptrap, for example. As expected, it is totally inaccurate as biography, but it is also excessively melodramatic and filled with dialogue that makes modern day viewers wince when they don't laugh. But it does provide a showcase for the one and only Greta Garbo, and only a motion picture could do justice to this unique talent. The filmmakers dispense with concessions to reality, creating a visual wonderland that exists solely to point up the beauty and allure of their star. William Daniels' stunningly lit cinematography, Adrian's plethora of gowns, capes and furs, and Cedric Gibbons' fanciful sets are all icing on Garbo's cake, as is leading man Ramon Novarro. His performance is perfunctory, but that's almost beside the point: he looks like the kind of man Garbo should be exchanging passionate kisses with. And Garbo makes all the trouble well worth while. She exudes that strange, indefinable attraction in every frame, somehow making even the sappiest scenes (of which there are several) palatable - and occasionally genuinely moving. As for the rest of the cast, Lionel Barrymore is decidedly over-the-top, but that's in keeping with the general 'film-ic' quality of the piece; C. Gordon Henry has some good moments; and Karen Morley is memorably feisty in her brief appearance." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/mata-hari-v31795/

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Romance 1930 - A romance with Garbo for all time

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021310/?ref_=fn_al_tt_9
IMDB rating: 6,1

Director: Clarence Brown
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone, Gavin Gordon, Elliott Nugent

"Although Greta Garbo in her 17 year-long Hollywood career (1925-1941) made 7 movies with the director Clarence Brown, the ones that have remained popular till our modern era of technical effects and shallow actions are only three: Flesh and the devil (1926), Anna Christie (1930) and Ana Karenina (1935). Indeed, those movies deserve appreciation since each of them carries something special deeply associated with certain moments in both MGM's history and Garbo's career. Yet, the early talkie that Garbo made soon after her introduction to sound is almost a forgotten, yet a very beautiful movie, Romance.
It is a film loosely based on the life of the opera singer Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944), a film in which, perhaps, not much happens but it offers everything that may be considered subtle, genuine, touching and beautiful, everything that may supply us with an affectionate journey into the old days of cinema when the cast were a true elite of artists.
So this time Greta Garbo stars as an Italian singer who seduces a young priest into falling for her. She admits that she had been the kept woman of an older man and when she returns to her former lover, her visit is misinterpreted by the priest as a liaison.
Garbo was Oscar nominated for this role in 1930 along with her role of Anna Christie, but lost to Norma Shearer."

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Anna Christie 1930 - Garbo's first talking picture

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020641/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Clarence Brown
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, Marie Dressler, George F. Marion

"Accompanied by one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Hollywood history, Greta Garbo made her 'talking picture' debut in this carefully chosen vehicle, the second screen version of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 playGeorge F. Marion, who originated the role of Chris on Broadway back in 1922, makes Anna's old seadog of a father much more than a vaudeville turn and Marie Dressler deservedly won recognition for her downtrodden old sod of a waterfront floozy. As for Garbo herself, she makes Eugene O'Neill's heroine unforgettably her own." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/anna-christie-v2512/

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Camille 1936 - Garbo's greatest triumph on screen

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028683/
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan

"Camille is one of the most romantically-atmospheric films ever made. It is a tearjerker classic - a well-known, lavish, luxuriously-mounted, melodramatic love/tragedy of Hollywood's Golden Age. Director George Cukor's film, his first with Greta Garbo, was also the first talking version of the content. It was adapted by Zoe Akins, Frances Marion, and James Hilton from Alexandre Dumas Fils' 1852 novel/play (La Dame aux Camelias) of the doomed romance of a tubercular courtesan/demimonde of ill repute in 19th century Paris.
Camille is also among MGM's most lavish productions of the 1930s, and features what many critics consider to be Greta Garbo's greatest film performance. Garbo's portrayal of the beautiful but sickly Parisian courtesan, who fatefully falls in love with a young French nobleman (25 year-old Robert Taylor), is widely considered the definitive version of the Camille story. Among the last of the projects overseen by studio production chief Irving Thalbeerg, (who died shortly before filming ended) the film boasted MGM's customary collection of behind-the-camera all-stars, including director George Cukor, whose patient attention to Garbo helped her to find just the right tone for her role. The supporting cast is similarly solid, highlighted by standouts Henry Daniell and Laura Hope Crews. They help to deflect attention from the film's weaker scenes, most of which involve Lionel Barrymore as the father of the frustrated suitor (Taylor). Despite spending the latter part of the film succumbing to illness, Garbo looks radiant, thanks to her Adrian gowns and William Daniels' loving cinematography.
Cukor - who had already directed the classic Dinner at eight (1933), and would go on to make further screen greats such as The Philadelphia story 1940 and My fair lady 1964 - captured the most exquisite, poetic, restrained performance of the great screen actress. In her most popular and luminous film, Garbo was recognized for her performance with the film's sole Academy Award nomination, but she lost to Luise Rainer who won for another, heavily-promoted MGM classic, The Good Earth."

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Queen Christina 1933 - Luxuriously romantic Garbo

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024481/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Main Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert

"Displaying the full range of Greta Garbo's mystique, Queen Christina is usually considered one of Garbo's best works, as well as her most erotically complex. Working from the true story of the 17th century Swedish queen who abdicated her throne for love, MGM surrounded Garbo with the kind of beautifully detailed period sets and costumes for which it was known in the 1930s, including Christina's preferred male drag. Gracefully directed by Rouben Mamoulian, Garbo silently yet powerfully communicates Christina's ill-fated love for John Gilbert's Spanish envoy as she moves around their room at a snowbound inn, 'memorizing' every object. Despite Garbo's reunion with three-time silent movie romance partner Gilbert, Queen Christina is more renowned for its (relatively) clear treatment of Christina's bisexuality, as she declares that she'll 'die a bachelor', kisses her favorite countess on the lips, and disguises herself as a man. Equally unforgettable is the final shot of Garbo staring enigmatically past the camera (a signature Garbo moment of secret emotions, hidden passions, and mysterious allure), allowing the viewer to 'fill in' her thoughts (director Rouben Mamoulian always claimed that he ordered Garbo to think about 'absolutely nothing', but one wonders).
Queen Christina did not perform as well as MGM had expected, making it a rare disappointment for Garbo and the end of Gilbert's career.
While some of Garbo's earliest talkies tend to creak a bit, Queen Christina is as fascinating today as it was nearly eight decades ago, and will undoubtedly continue to remain just as fascinating for the next eight decades." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/queen-christina-v39808

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